


This Gun for Hire

by romanticalgirl



Series: Bullet in the Barrel (of Your Best Guy's Gun) [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Assassin Bucky Barnes, Assassination, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Murder, Non-Serum Steve Rogers, want ads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-25 04:08:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22009780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/romanticalgirl/pseuds/romanticalgirl
Summary: Steve is away for Christmas being an asshole for hire. The assassin for hire he accidentally called calls him back.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Series: Bullet in the Barrel (of Your Best Guy's Gun) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1584283
Comments: 48
Kudos: 294





	This Gun for Hire

**Author's Note:**

> Bucky discusses a child being sexually abused who has hired him to kill his father. Nothing is detailed, but they do have a discussion about it.

“Steve? Honey?”

Steve jerks his head toward the direction of the voice and blinks rapidly. Andrea - her name is Andrea, he reminds himself, not any of the other names he’s almost accidentally called her - is smiling at him, warily. “Oh. Hey.” He walks over and puts his arm around her, and smiling. “How’m I doing?”

She smiles for real this time. “My dad absolutely hates you.”

“And your mom?”

“She told me that God will punish me for being with, and I quote, ‘that kind of person’.”

“Which bothered her more? The socialism, the bisexuality, the tattoos, or the fact that I’m hoping to get you pregnant as soon as possible, because I want at least six kids even with all my genetic mutations?”

“I think they’re all tied for number one. Pretty sure when I eventually bring Max around the only thing they’ll be able to think is ‘at least it’s not that Steve-person’.” She leans in and kisses his cheek. “And just think. It’s only the first day. And you haven’t even met the extended family.”

Steve’s about to say something when his phone rings. He looks at it, frowning. 

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I just… Um, I think I should take this. I’m going to - “ He gestures toward the sliding glass doors and Andrea nods. Steve heads over, answering the call as he goes. “Hello?”

“I have a message from a fifteen year old.”

“Why are you calling me?”

The guy hums and, when he speaks, Steve can hear his accent more distinctly. “He’s offering me a hundred dollars to kill his stepfather.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“He apparently has been touching him, and is now talking about making his younger sister participate.”

Steve sucks in a breath that has nothing to do with the icy outside air. “What?”

“So, I think it is definitely something I should take. But he is insisting that I take the money.”

“Did you call the police?”

“He says that no one he’s told believes him because he is a boy. He was going to do it, but he’s afraid that, if he can’t actually manage it, that he’ll go to jail or, worse, his father will take it out on his little sister.”

“Oh my god.” 

“So, how do I tell him I don’t want her money?”

“Oh my god.”

“Steve? Honey?” Andrea and her mother come out onto the back patio. “Everything okay?”

“What? Oh, hey. Yeah. Absolutely. Hey, Mrs. Bennett. Just talking to my ex-boyfriend. He just got out of prison. I was supposed to pick him up, but I couldn’t not spend the holidays with Angie-baby.”

“Her name is _Andrea_.” Mrs. Bennett grabs her daughter’s arm and pulls her back inside the house. Steve can already hear her losing her mind over his words. 

“I am your boyfriend?”

“No. I’m just… I really don’t think you should murder people. Just call the cops on the guy.”

“He is a sheriff.”

Steve closes his eyes and groans. “You want to kill a _police officer_?”

“It is not about wanting. Who is the girl?”

“Would you quit trying to change the subject?” Steve rubs his forehead with the ball of his hand. “Oh god. I’m an accessory. You’ve made me an accessory!”

He huffs a breath that sounds like the aural equivalent of an eyeroll. “You watch too much television.” 

“Jesus. You've made me an accessory and I don’t even know your name!”

“I told you. It’s Bucky.”

“Bucky isn’t a real name!”

“It is no stranger than some of the other names I’ve heard.” His smirk comes through in his voice. “Like Angie-baby.”

“I’m trying to make her parents hate me.”

“Who could hate you? I’ve met you. You’re adorable.” He clears his throat. “Now, how do I tell him I will do it for free?”

“I am not ado - Look, you can’t kill a sheriff. The police get very angry about that. Very angry. Shooting people in retaliation angry.”

“I don’t get _caught_.” He sounds scandalized, but he also sounds like he’s smiling. Steve’s chest tightens and he tells himself to stop it. Buckyhums. “How long does it take a fifteen-year-old to raise a hundred dollars?”

“How do you know he’s not just being an angsty kid?”

There’s a dead silence for a long moment, and Steve feels a shiver go down his spine that has nothing to do with the weather. “Do you suggest he’s lying?”

“No. No! Shit. That’s not what I meant.”

“I don’t think you can help me after all.”

Steve panics. “Wait! Bucky!” There’s silence, but not a dial tone. “Tell him if he’s determined to give you the money, you’d rather he donate it to a domestic violence or sexual assault charity. I can send you the links to some good ones. If he insists on giving it to you, then you can do the same.”

He stays silent for a long time. “I’m not joking. I am going to kill him.”

“Yeah.” Steve sighs, and he knows he should be more worried about it than he is, but now that he’s let it sink in, now that he’s gotten past the ‘there’s an assassin calling me’ and asking me about murder, the thought of anyone having to suffer through what this kid’s going through makes anger rise up and fill Steve’s chest. “Yeah.”

“Will you try to stop me? Call the police?”

“No.”

“No?” There’s the hint of a laugh in his voice, a soft lilt to the word. 

“No. Just… Bucky?”

“Hm?”

Steve sighs. “Make it hurt.”

**

On Monday, Steve deposits the five hundred bucks and thinks about taking himself out to dinner. Instead, he walks into Otto’s. He thinks it’s the same people sitting in the booths as had been there the last time, and he knows the person sitting in the booth he’s looking at definitely is. He slides onto the bench opposite Bucky. 

“Hi.”

There’s a soft click, a quiet rustle of fabric, and then Bucky’s hands are both on the table. Steve’s brain gibbers as he realizes he just had a gun pointed at him, and he grabs the beer that’s sitting on the table near Bucky’s hand and takes several long swallows. 

“How was your holiday?”

Steve puts the beer down, licks his lips, then runs his palm over them before wiping them on the back of his arm. “According to Andrea, she didn’t even know her parents knew some of the words they called me.”

Bucky smiles and nods then gets up, walking over to the bar. He comes back with two beers and slips into his seat again. “A job well done then.”

“She seemed to think so.” Steve chews his lower lip, takes a drink of the beer Bucky pushes over to him. “How was yours?”

“I didn't celebrate.”

“Right. I mean.” He clears his throat. “I saw. The paper.”

“The local police investigated. Apparently it was worse, more than just what he was doing to his son.”

“I read that too.”

“I made it hurt.”

“Yeah. I figured that out from what little they did say.”

Bucky nods and takes a drink of his own. “There are bad people in the world.”

“I know that.”

“I’m not one of them.”

“You’re an assassin.” Steve blinks at him, and he wants to be annoyed by Bucky’s smile. 

“Okay, I’m a bad person. But there are others who are much, much worse.”

Steve groans. “You can’t make me an accessory again.”

Bucky shrugs. “Fair enough.”

“Okay.” Steve takes another drink of beer, sighs, bows his head and fists his hands in his hair. “I’m going to go get dinner.”

Bucky’s voice is soft. “All right.”

Steve nods, gets up and takes a few steps. He stops and turns around. Bucky’s looking over his shoulder at him. Steve opens his hands, holding them out palm up. “Well?”

“Well what?”

He tilts his head toward the door. “Are you coming with me?”

“You’re taking me to dinner?”

“You didn’t get paid for doing a good thing. Least I can do is buy you dinner.” Bucky gets out of the booth, grinning all the while. Steve does his best not to get caught staring, especially once Bucky comes up beside him, putting his hand in the small of Steve’s back. He doesn’t think about what he’s doing or who he’s doing it with. He just takes a deep breath. “I hope you’re a cheap date.”


End file.
